In Budget Signing Statement, President Says He Won’t Abide By Anti-Czar Provision

President Obama made a signing statement when he put ink to the budget bill and took issue with a rider, section 2262, that defunds certain White House positions, such as “czars”; and he says he is not going to abide by it.

“The President has well-established authority to supervise and oversee the executive branch, and to obtain advice in furtherance of this supervisory authority,” he wrote. “The President also has the prerogative to obtain advice that will assist him in carrying out his constitutional responsibilities, and do so not only from executive branch officials and employees outside the White House, but also from advisers within it. Legislative efforts that significantly impede the President’s ability to exercise his supervisory and coordinating authorities or to obtain the views of the appropriate senior advisers violate the separation of powers by undermining the President’s ability to exercise his constitutional responsibilities and take care that the laws be faithfully executed.”

Therefore, the president wrote, “the executive branch will construe section 2262 not to abrogate these Presidential prerogatives.”

In other words: we know what you wanted that provision to do, but we don’t think it’s constitutional, so we will interpret it differently than the way you meant it.

The president says he’ll work with Congress to overturn other provisions, such as ones that prevent funds to transfer Gitmo detainees or that stop them from being tried in criminal courts.